In a reassuring bit of political news, the White House released a statement today saying that if HR358 — or, as we affectionately call it, the "Let Women Die" bill — were to come across the President's desk, his aids would recommend he veto it.

The statement reads, in part,

The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 358 because, as previously stated in the Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 3, the legislation intrudes on women's reproductive freedom and access to health care and unnecessarily restricts the private insurance choices that women and their families have today.

It goes on to state that the bill redundantly applies new legislation where none is necessary, and that it goes too far to infringe on the privacy of individual women.

Legislators have voted pretty much along party lines when it comes to reproductive rights this year, and even though the Republican party controls the House, they don't have the 2/3 majority they'd need to override the President's veto. Democrats control the Senate.

House Republicans plan to press forward with meaningless, pointless debate over this bill that will never pass, anyway, because apparently there's a dearth of pro-life grandstanding soundbytes for use in 2012 political ads, and it's important for the TV cameras to know just how much your elected Republican representative loves fetuses.